


Second Chance

by HelloHeadquarters



Series: Angry Alternative Apex [2]
Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, M/M, angry narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:49:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28703184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloHeadquarters/pseuds/HelloHeadquarters
Summary: Just me being mad at all the latest plot developments, and a small follow on from First Run Out.
Relationships: Crypto | Park Tae Joon/Mirage | Elliott Witt
Series: Angry Alternative Apex [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104032
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Second Chance

Elliott's looking at a bill. It's looking back at him like it could slit his throat and he can't help but think this is the worst way to be fucked. He makes money, goodish money, but he's a moron nine times out of ten and he _knows_ this, knows it like he knows his own name, only now it rhymes with idiot. He's been so stupid, so downright fucking careless and here they are, the consequences, ready and willing to fuck up his day and his whole week if he lets them. And he will. He always does. 

God, how he wishes he had someone to talk to. Someone to sympathise without provisios but it's looking like he's gonna have to bite the bullet, admit he screwed up _again_ and take another hit on top of the one he's already feeling like a kick to the groin.

"You need a roommate."

Renee looks at him like he's the biggest damn fool she's seen in all her days and it's a look he knows well, well enough now to think it's probably true. 

"I don't want a roommate," he complains, but Renee's already fucking drawing up the metaphorical paperwork and he is without a leg to stand on. 

Ramya Parekh is installed in the men's room of his bar and here he is thinking fucking hell, people used to piss here, but in recent months it's been an infirmary, sneaky fucker HQ and probably the last place on Solace Hyeon Kim ever wants to be.

Hyeon, he thinks gently, but it blows away like mist. 

He likes Ramya. She's funny and ridiculous and reckless, and he's had enough of sticks up various asses for a lifetime. 

She's also patching him up after a slight misunderstanding in the market and going on about Pathfinder like he's supposed to give a shit.

Which he does. Of course he does. For Elliott, Pathfinder has always been a bitter pill. Never has anyone in Elliott's life loved him so completely and without condition. No one else has ever been programmed to do so, either. Pathfinder loves him because his software tells him to, and that's the part that grates. 

Ramya makes a stupid comment, a thing about wanting Pathfinder for his own but Elliott isn't into robots. He used to be sure what he was into but there's this fucking annoying hacker on the edge of his mind that won't go away and he makes a comment about how his sexuality might not be so cut and dry before he can stop himself. 

Ramya brushes it off and he's glad. There are conversations he's not only not ready to have but ones he just doesn't want to have in the first place and this is one of them. Still, it's sharp in his mind that Pathfinder is doing a stupid thing and he needs to protect him but all he's getting is reasons why he should just let the MRVN be. Maybe they're right. Maybe he should let Pathfinder get hurt and see it as a learning experience.

He shudders. Fuck that. Pathfinder is his friend for better or for weirdly worse and he wants to save him from what will inevitably be a hit that only serves to hurt him. Elliott's taken enough stupid risks and done enough stupid stuff to wish now he had someone in his life to hold him back, but Renee and Ramya are taking about this fucked up romance like it's one for the ages and he might be stupid but he's not blind. 

He wonders how he, the resident imbecile, is the only one who seems to be making any sense as he crashes in to what Pathfinder calls his home like a superhero made of bad decisions.

Pathfinder seems happy. He seems excited and like he's uncovered the trick to being a Real Boy and Elliott's feels his saviour complex waver just a little. It just feels weird to be rescuing anyone when here he is, in desperate need of saving himself but maybe he can't climb out of the deep red pit he's fallen in but he can at least try to ensure he doesn't get any company. 

Pathfinder introduces the reconstructed monstrosity as his girlfriend and Elliott already knows _she_ doesn't see it that way but the real rub comes from the fact that if Elliott's the one saying it, it must be wrong, and he can't help but feel like Renee and Ramya are encouraging this awful romance just because _he_ was the one saying that it was all going to end in tears. 

He's not the best at making decisions, of seeing reality and adhering to it, he knows, but he's really not fucking stupid. He's not.

He's _not_.

But Elliott is in the minority once again shouted down so much that the doubt creeps in and he must be wrong, and he lets himself leave it alone because he's a fuck up, he always is, and it's about time he started to realise that. 

He retreats back to his bar, _his fucking bar_ , the one everyone else is so ready to take charge of without asking becasue that's all he is. A means to an end, an inconvenience and he's mad as hell as the call comes in for another punch up in the ring and he hopes some of his anger can be taken out with a rifle and a few well placed holograms. 

No such luck, because when is his anything but bad and he stands next to Natalie and the bastard chemist in the drop ship knowing full well that he is going to be drama adjacent for the entire fucking match. Natalie's cold towards Caustic and he's a fucking asshole in return, spouting lies and platitudes that miss the mark by a mile.

He feels like a third wheel in the grossest, ugliest break up in the history of mankind but he has a horse in this race because he could quite cheerfully kick Caustic's ass seven ways from Sunday after what he put Hyeon through. Valid, but not conducive to a coherant squad and certainly not the type that wins championships. 

As they're patching themselves up in the med bay, Caustic is nowhere to be seen and that's no fucking surprise but Elliott can't stop himself from leaning in and touching base, just to see where Hyeon stands with Natalie.

"I do not wish to talk about him," she says shortly, and his rage spikes again because what she was _supposed_ to say is that she needs to find him and apologise for being so quick to blame him. He opens his mouth and then shuts it again quickly because he is always wrong, wrong again, and maybe Hyeon is at fault but for the life of him he can't think why.

-

He finds Hyeon after searching for him for a while. Elliott's proud but not so damn stubborn that he can't admit what he's doing to himself at least. He's hurting, Hyeon is too, but maybe they can hurt together and hate the world and make a little peace for themselves against everyone else who wants to break them apart. The only difference is that Hyeon is innocent, whereas Elliott's predicament is his own stupid fault. But he lives in hope that someone will ask him why he keeps being so reckless, because he longs to break down and confess that really he's not doing so good after all.

Hyeon, however, is cold and distracted and doesn't want to be a shoulder or whatever Elliott needs because he's neck deep in his own shit and Elliott leaves him alone, feeling like whatever he did, whatever he thought he had started to cultivate between them amounts to nothing because just like everyone else, Hyeon does not have time for him.

-

Fresh in the back of this latest hit to his person, Elliott fucks up. Fucks up _royally_ , and says some nasty things out loud that he should never have allowed to take up space in his head in the first place. He was just trying to look out for Pathfinder, he was, and he can tell himself that until all is dust but Renee is hurting because he couldn't keep his stupid mouth shut. 

He's trying to deal with that when the whole situation with Path and Ash fucking implodes, just like he knew it always would and he's spinning plates all over the shop, and everyone is so damn mad at him. 

He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to make the call and risk a terrible time but he doesn't know what else to do. He calls his mom and asks if there's anything in her foggy memory that pertains to void tech, and she sounds sad and confused and worried and broken but she always does now and that's a Thing. A thing that Elliott has to adjust to and work around because there is no making it right. There's no way to fix Evelyn Witt, and Elliott feels it all the way through him but nobody's left to cry to about it to now.

He gets what he needs, bleeds a night of energy into finding out something that will make him useful again, that will make him _matter_ , because for Elliott love is currency, and one he always has to earn.

He can't fix Renee's pain, but he can soothe it with a gift and a birthday and another foot for her to put on solid ground. And he's grateful that the little coy smile is his doing because that smile means redemption. 

Ramya might be mad at him but he doesn't care because she started it, and if his interactions with Hyeon were anything to go by a few snipes and jabs here and there are just part and parcel of who he is. He sends her shit to rocket due to be fired into space, and she tosses up between paying the rent she owes him and which was the whole reason for her taking up space in the johns in the first place, and paying the sizeable tab she's accumulated behind the bar. She shrugs them both off without a fucking care in the world about Elliott's debt and he pours her another pint because tomorrow he's gonna get the upper hand when that rocket fucks off to parts unknown.

-

Oh, she's so fucking mad as he walks out of an apartment filled with flowers but he hands her a bouquet of wrenches and kudos to her, she gets that this is just another stupid step in their stupid fucking war and she'll get him back, he can see the glint in her eye and the wheels turning in her head hit he'll take the hit because it's Her Turn. 

They end up in a mad dash to chase her things to a brand new planet and then there's this redhead who is absolutely sweet as fuck to Elliott, so much so it blindsides him because he's not used to kindness that doesn't come with a bill. He likes Mary, and hates the hint of sadness that underlines everything she does. 

-

Once again he's teamed with Natalie, and she seems different. Older. Angrier. She casually mentions that's she's forgiven Crypto and it's like a wall in front of Elliott that he has to punch through or he might never ever move again. 

"Forgiven him for what?" he demands, and there's a fight going on they really ought to be paying attention to but Hyeon is huddled in the corner desperately trying to stitch himself back together and all he can do is watch. 

Elliott's almost pleased at the expression that settles on Natalie's face, a picture of self doubt and second guessing as he steps towards her and glares. He's heard a few stupid slips, a few things that tell him that even though Hyeon said he might tell him his secret one day, she managed to get there first because her anger is unjustified but Hyeon's a fucking idiot and he wanted to make it right in the stupidest way possible. He doesn't care anymore what Hyeon might be hiding, he's just filled with the need to protect him, a need borne of so fucking much he doesn't know where to begin. He fancies him, he pities him, he likes him, but most of all he's sick to death of seeing that troubled look in his eyes. 

"For what?" he repeats, and she has no answer, and no excuse.

-

"I wasn't sticking up for you," he lies when Hyeon finds him later in the workshop. "I'm too angry with you to do that."

"You too?" Hyeon says lightly, his voice already defeated. 

"I was always in your corner man. You don't owe me shit but I don't get why you think you owe anyone. I hate to see you like this."

"Like what?"

"Like you're to blame. Like you did something wrong. Like for a single fucking second you'd ever be so shitty and do anything to hurt us. Maybe I don't know you like Natalie does but-" He looks at Hyeon, and he feels betrayed by the tears pricking at the corner of his eyes. "I thought I knew you better than this."

Hyeon looks to his feet. Elliott can see the flood of words and explanations held tightly behind his lips and he gets that Hyeon has retreated again. He's said too much to the wrong person and he's frightened, and Elliott feels like shit but he's still mad because out of everyone, Hyoen should have come to him. Elliott is just as alone, and just as at fault. 

"I'm not your fucking enemy Hyeon," he says sadly. "I'm not anyone's enemy. I just... I needed you to know that."

Hyeon looks up, reaches out to take a fallen projector from Elliott's kit and plays with it in his hands. "I thought she was my friend. I don't like feeling like I hurt her."

"You didn't hurt her, that fucking asshole did and you were just there and my fucking god Hyeon you don't get it do you? Friendships aren't a chore, they aren't supposed to be something you have to pay for every day. You're allowed to do wrong, you're allowed to feel bad and expect that someone somewhere, gives a shit. You're allowed to have bad days and mess up, you shouldn't have to risk everything to make it right."

Hyeon looks at him, eyes cold. "I heard what you did for Renee," he says pointedly. "I know what you risked for her."

Elliott is furious now. "Oh fuck you," he spits, because Hyeon is right. He's a hypocrite. "Just fuck off."

Once upon a time, when it was Hyeon who was flailing and needing an anchor, Elliott was there when no one else would be. But he can't stand this, can't stand the wrong kind of attention or the pity in Hyeon's eyes because he's lost in a world where the people he tries so hard to care about hold him to such a high standard and he's exhausted just trying to stop his friends from hating him. "Just... get the hell out of here."

Another bridge, another fire.

"No," Hyeon says softly. "I want to stay."

"Why?"

"Because you look like you need a friend."


End file.
